Weird starting issue on my Saturn Vue

[Richard McAlister]

I have a problem with my 2003 Saturn Vue. It is the 3.0L engine with about 114k miles. Sometimes it refuses to start. The engine cranks well (has a new battery), but just will not catch. There seems to be no pattern when this happens - sometimes hot, sometimes after several hours of rest, or overnight. Last night (Wednesday) it would not start after cranking about 10 times for about 10 seconds each, but then waited about 15 minutes and it started right away, no hesitation at all. I took it into an independent shop today (started fine this morning), they could find no problems, no codes, started fine for them each time they tried. I had them do a tune up (should have had it done at 100K anyway) they thought it might help, but could not guarantee that it would solve the problem. I don't keep close gas mileage figures on it, but seems mpg has seemed to be very poor lately.



Any ideas on what the problem might be or where to start looking? :banghead:

 

[scott degroot]

First thing I would check for for if you brought it in to me is the fuel pressure after you shut the car off and then leave the fuel pressure gauge on there while the car sat for a while and monitor the fuel pressure when the vehicle was restarted. In cases liek these I alwasy try to get the customer to leave it overnight as that is usually when it acts up the most.